BOOK REVIEW: PHILIPPINE MEDALS & TOKENS, 3RD ED.

Philippine Medals & Tokens 1780-2020, 3rd Edition
Book Review by Dr. Kenneth J.E. Berger

The other day I received in the mail Dr. Earl D. Honeycutt's newest edition (3 rd ) of his book, Philippine Medals & Tokens 1780-2020. I can honestly say that I am greatly impressed.

The first thing I immediately noticed was that this edition, unlike the first two, is not spiral bound. Instead, this edition uses what is known as perfect (or paperback) binding. This alone is a vast improvement. Having used his previous editions, I can state that although spiral bound books can lie flat, they do not hold up to extensive use and the covers and pages eventually come loose and separate. Complementing this improved binding is a well-designed glossy cover in full color.

The biggest improvement, however, is that the pictures of all the medals and tokens are not only much clearer but are in full color! Depicting them in color allows the reader to better appreciate the beauty of many of these medals/tokens. The only further improvement would be to include pictures of the reverses unless they are blank.

This edition has a total of 1882 entries which is 330 more entries than the 2nd edition for an increase of twenty-one percent. Compare this to Aldo Basso's 2nd edition which only numbered approximately 195 entries. Without a doubt, Dr. Honeycutt has become the pre-eminent authority on Philippine medals and tokens For example, although Basso numbers are still being used today, they are rapidly being replaced by Honeycutt numbers.

As with his previous editions, Dr. Honeycutt has once again included estimated values for each of the medals/tokens. How he has been able to accomplish such a feat is nothing short of amazing, especially since very few of them are regularly found for sale or in auctions.

Of course, any work of this magnitude cannot be expected to be perfect and a few formatting and grammatical errors have been found. However, they are so minor that they might not even be noticed by the average reader and, in no way, detract from the quality of the book.

Even if you only collect Philippine coins and/or banknotes, this book will make a nice addition to your library. It would also be of interest to medal and token collectors in general and to historians who have an interest in the Philippines.

The book is available from the author for U.S. $60.00 plus $4.00 P&S within the U.S. The author may be contacted at: Dr. Earl D. Honeycutt, 226 Edgewater Circle, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-4418 or via email: ehoneycutt@elon.edu

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NEW BOOK: PHILIPPINE MEDALS AND TOKENS, 3RD ED. (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n27a03.html)

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